Development and Validation of a Scale to Assess Caregiver Management Behaviors in Response to the Decreased Engagement of People with Dementia in Daily Activities.

Objective: To explore types of caregivers' management approaches, to develop a scale to assess caregivers' management behaviors and their relationship implications and to examine the scale's psychometric qualities.Method: First, based on a qualitative study, developing the corpus of items to align as closely as possible to caregivers' experience using their own words; second, exploring the structure of the scale and reducing the number of items; and third, studying the validity of the scale.Results: After assessing the validity requirements of the original corpus of items, an exploratory factor analysis of the first version of the scale with 62 items permitted the identification of three dimensions of caregiver management: "Negative control", "Positive stimulation" and "Overwhelming feeling". Because of its redundancy with respect to existing scales, the last dimension was removed. In the last step, a confirmatory factor analysis showed that a 13-item two-order factor model was in an acceptable model.Conclusion: The 13-item scale can be used to identify caregivers facing difficulty adapting their support as a baseline for following caregivers over time or evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention.Clinical implications: This scale can rapidly evaluate caregivers' management behaviors and their relational consequences and monitor outcomes of support interventions.

An acceptance, role transition, and couple dynamics-based program for caregivers: A qualitative study of the experience of spouses of persons with young-onset dementia.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we assessed a support program based on acceptance, role transition, and couple dynamics for spouses of people with young-onset dementia. The qualitative feedback from the caregivers' experience is analyzed. The goal was to explore how this home-based support program is perceived and to appraise the impact of the different approaches that were offered. DESIGN: A thematic analysis was conducted on the answers to the end-of-session questionnaires and the follow-up semistructured interviews. RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the analyses. They highlighted caregivers' ability to overcome their emotional struggle as well as the control of their loved one's behaviors. The results also showed the possibility for caregivers to access new ways to support their loved ones and to maintain the quality of their relationship. CONCLUSION: These findings represent preliminary evidence of this program's efficacy for caregivers.

A Customized Intervention for Dementia Caregivers: A Quasi-Experimental Design.

Objective: The aim of this study is to test the effects of a customized intervention on distress among caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) using a quasi-experimental design. Method: Fifty-one spouse caregivers in the experimental group and 51 in the control group participated in the study. The effects of the intervention were examined by comparing caregivers' responses with questionnaires at pre-intervention baseline (T0) and immediately after intervention (T1). Differences were quantified using repeated-measures ANOVA. Results: The analyses indicated a stabilizing effect of the intervention on caregivers' perceptions of PWD's daily functioning, self-esteem related to caregiving, quality of family support, and feeling of distress. Linear increases were observed regarding sense of preparedness and impact on daily routine, while no differences (interaction and linear effects) were observed for degree of self-efficacy, depression, impact on finances, or self-rated health. Conclusion: These findings show a preliminary efficacy of the intervention proposed in this study to prevent the exacerbation of caregivers' distress.